Phase velocities of surface acoustic waves in several boron nitride films were investigated by Brillouin light scattering. In the case of films with predominantly hexagonal crystal structure, grown under conditions close to the nucleation threshold of cubic BN, four independent elastic constants have been determined from the dispersion of the Rayleigh and the first Sezawa mode. The large elastic anisotropy of up to c11/c33 = 0.1 is attributed to a pronounced texture with the c-axes of the crystallites parallel to the film plane. In the case of cubic BN films the dispersion of the Rayleigh wave provides evidence for the existence of a more compliant layer at the substrate-film interface. The observed broadening of the Rayleigh mode is identified to be caused by the film morphology.

FeNi/FeMn exchange bias samples with a large exchange bias field at room temperature have been prepared on a Cu buffer layer. Upon irradiation with He ions, both the exchange bias field and the coercive field are modified. For low ion doses the exchange bias field is enhanced by nearly a factor of 2. Above a threshold dose of 0.3olsi 10 15 ions/cm 2 , the exchange bias field decreases continuously as the ion dose increases. The ob-served modifications are explained in terms of defect creation acting as pinning sites for domain walls and atomic intermixing.

For the next generation of high data rate magnetic recording above 1 Gbit/s, a better understanding of the switching processes for both recording heads and media will be required. In order to maximize the switch-ing speed for such devices, the magnetization precession after the magnetic field pulse termination needs to be suppressed to a maximum degree. It is demonstrated experimentally for ferrite films that the appropriate adjustment of the field pulse parameters and/or the static applied field may lead to a full suppression of the magnetization precession immediately upon termination of the field pulse. The suppression is explained by taking into account the actual direction of the magnetization with respect to the static field direction at the pulse termination.